Expanding Storage

[Guinea]

I built a FreeNAS system using a 24 bay chassis. Due to the pricing, I only did my initial configuration with 8 WD Red HDDs. I am looking to expand to another 8 or 16 possibly, but wasn't sure how to go about it with my current configuration without causing any issues. I am running a Plex Media Server on the system under a ZFS configuration. I honestly do not remember the exact steps I used to configure everything because it was a long time ago (over a year). Is there a way I can take a snapshot of existing config and post it here so someone can point me to instructions on how to add additional hard drives to my existing configuration without losing any data? The storage is primarily used for 1:1 MKV passthrough rips of my blu rays. I am starting to run out of space so I want to get a head start on the expansion process.

 

[Chris Moore]

Did you upgrade your version of FreeNAS or are you still running version 11?

 

[Chris Moore]

I have a 24 bay NAS. I have 8 drives populated with 4TB WD Red drives. I have FreeNAS 11 running now on a 120GB SSD. The main purpose is for me to use ZFS (Raid2?) to make my setup expandable. I want to use all 8 drives for a single vdev and when it fills up, I want to be able to add 2 more vdevs with the same drive types and sizes in 8 drive additions (8 drives per vdev and 24 bays, so I can do 2 more expansions). I am confused on how to set this up. I made a single volume (sco_data_vault). I can see it in storage, but I don't see how to create the vdev. I also see a jails location.

Previously, back in 2017, you said you were using 4TB drives. Did you upgrade to larger drives between then and now?

 

[Guinea]

Previously, back in 2017, you said you were using 4TB drives. Did you upgrade to larger drives between then and now?

That is what I am still using. I forgot I even made that post, thank you for the reference!

 

[Chris Moore]

That is what I am still using. I forgot I even made that post, thank you for the reference!

Did you already buy drives or are you looking for drives also?

What version of FreeNAS are you using?

 

[Guinea]

I have not. I was going to buy the same drives as before for consistency sake, but I haven't started shopping around yet. I wanted to know what I should be looking for before I do. Should I do all 16 spots now or can I easily do another 8 and then another 8 down the road? Is it possible to do 8 more and then use the other 8 as a way to create a backup of my 16 drives for safety? I know the ideal scenario is to not store your backup of your movies on the same device, but I don't know another option to protect all my movie rips that doesn't involve a TON of storage somewhere else. Seems really expensive. The rips just took me forever so I would love to be able to protect all the data as much as possible. I wasn't sure if 8 of the drives could do something like that or if I should just do all 16 as actual zpool storage expansion.

I am using FreeNAS-11.2-RELEASE-U1

 

[Guinea]

So what would be the suggestion or steps to add more storage?

 

[pro lamer]

know the ideal scenario is to not store your backup of your movies on the same device

Is the plan to use the new drives for backup of the drives you already have?

Sent from my phone

 

[Guinea]

So that is one of my questions. I want to have a backup of my data because it was very time consuming to rip all of my Blu Rays. Obviously it is better to have my backup in another piece of hardware or even at another location, but that is not financially feasible right now. The amount of storage I would need means the backup hardware would need to be substantial as well. So my thought process was to see if I could leverage 8 of the 24 drives and use them specifically as a backup of the data to restore the other 16 drives in the case of an issue. I don't even know if that would be beneficial or give me any added value to be honest though. I definitely need to expand my storage though and my zfs configuration provides some protection. So I am mostly wondering how to add to my existing zfs storage. I have an 8 drive zpool and I vaguely remember the process was something like just plugging in 8 new drives and creating another zpool within the same storage, but I don't know if there is an instruction process for this. I don't want to mess it up. I am also curious how it works with upgrading hard drives. So down the road, when my 24 bays of 4TB hard drives is not enough...how do I go about upgrading each zpool to 6 or 8 or 10 TB hdds? Those are basically my questions.

 

[CraigD]

So I am mostly wondering how to add to my existing zfs storage. I have an 8 drive zpool and I vaguely remember the process was something like just plugging in 8 new drives and creating another zpool within the same storage, but I don't know if there is an instruction process for this. I don't want to mess it up. I am also curious how it works with upgrading hard drives. So down the road, when my 24 bays of 4TB hard drives is not enough...how do I go about upgrading each zpool to 6 or 8 or 10 TB hdds? Those are basically my questions.

You right you don't want to mess it up!

I highly recommend the step by step instructions in the User Guide, located in the Documentation drop down menu at the top of this page

Before doing this, burn in and test your replacement drives

Have Fun

 

[Guinea]

What is the burn in process? Is that also in the user guide?

 

[pro lamer]

Since they are media data they don't change often - you can create a separate pool for backup and take all the backup drives off-site (or at least to a separate room ;) ).

For better safety you can rotate backup pool but it means at least twice as many drives as the backup pool...

And you are running out of space so you need even more drives...

:/

Sent from my phone

 

[pro lamer]

What is the burn in process? Is that also in the user guide?

A sticky in the forums - thread or a resource...

Sent from my phone

 

[danb35]

A sticky in the forums - thread or a resource...

...and/or in Uncle Fester's Guide (see my .sig).

 

[Kevin Horton]

One option would be to purchase 8 new 4 TB drives now to make a second vdev to add to the current vdev for your primary data storage. This would give you double the capacity. When cash allows buy enough 8TB drives to make a second pool in RAIDZ2 (RAIDZ1 if cash demands) to be backup, running just less than 80% capacity. As your data needs increase, purchase additional 8TB drives, destroy the backup pool and create a new larger one. The end point is when you have a backup pool with 8TB drives in RAIDZ2.

If your data needs are increasing quickly, instead of purchasing 4TB drives now, purchase 6TB or 8TB.

 

[CraigD]

One option would be to purchase 8 new 4 TB drives now to make a second vdev to add to the current vdev for your primary data storage. This would give you double the capacity.

And you will not need to rebuild the data

Have Fun

 

[Guinea]

That is what I am reading about now in the user guide. So basically it looks as simple as purchasing the same hard drives I have now in groups of 8, adding them in and adding them to the storage by using the "extend" option under my current pool. Seems like it is a pretty automated process.

Now what is this burn-in process I have heard people mention? I saw the script in github, but does that get done before running the extend on the pool? How do I access the hard drives before adding them to the pool or should I be doing the script after running the extend and will it do anything to my existing hard drives. I don't remember if I ever did that on my current pool setup.

 

[CraigD]

test first

Have Fun

 

[pro lamer]

Burn in definitely before adding to the pool

Sent from my phone

 

[pro lamer]

basically it looks as simple as purchasing the same hard drives I have now in groups of 8, adding them in and adding them to the storage by using the "extend" option under my current pool.

Are you planning to have backup in the same pool? If so then just don't do it.

Instead use snapshots. (The snapshot suggestion makes sense if you want to protect yourself from ransomware or accidental deletions. This is what I assumed which might not be true )

Backup to the same pool gives very little extra safety but costs huge space.

Sent from my phone